Populism and the quality of democracy. Italy and Venezuela in a comparative perspective

This article proposes a comparison between the Venezuelan populism of Chávez's government and Italian populism after Silvio Berlusconi's appearance on the political scene. Bearing in mind the main theoretical tendencies of the present scientific debate on populism, some structural elements of the Venezuelan and Italian contexts will be examined. An attempt will be made to bring out the main characteristics of the two phenomena in order to highlight elements that involve the communication aspects, social mobilization and political system of each.